What Sticks

From AdAge.Com, a review of the forthcoming book What Sticks, by Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart, highlights some of the dysfunction that translates in millions billions of dollars wasted in advertising and marketing efforts.

From the review:

Unable to define success Ad agencies, the target of nearly nonstop flagellation both self-inflicted and otherwise in the past decade, may find some solace in the book. It pins much of the blame for marketing's woes on marketers and their failure to even define success for campaigns at the outset -- much less measure it properly on the back end. Of the 36 marketers the authors researched, only ttwo -- P&G and Cingular -- had a clear definition of success for each marketing effort at the outset, Mr. Briggs said in an interview.

Some marketers may argue BLINK, but it’s the definition of group think:

The authors discovered that many longstanding axioms of media planning were based on nothing more than hunch and legend. They reveal how frequently marketers disregard research when it doesn't jibe with their own opinions -- or seek out research that does.

To what extent are you defining success before a campaign starts? Do you know why your customers (suspects, prospects, returning, or otherwise) are motivated to utilize your product or service? $53.5 billion in waste on motivation alone, according to Rex Briggs (in an audio interview on his company's site). Not understanding the motivation then translates into poorly designed message. Briggs claims over $38 billion then is wasted as the message doesn’t account for motivation. That’s over $88 billion in advertising spend lost due to an inability to understand and message to its core audience.

I used to work with a group of web developers who used the work motto "suck less." For marketers wasting less would be a healthy start to providing greater value for their organization or clients.

UPDATE 8/14/06 - More Audio (AdAge interviews Greg Stuart)